My love for this thing continues to grow.

How's this for a beautiful marriage of several things that I love:

NPR's "Wait wait....Don't Blog Me" wit alongside KFC's DOUBLE DOWN alongside angry reader comments. It's like a marriage made in satirical heaven!

I sort of can't get enough of the press surrounding the big, bad chicken-instead-of-bread mess of marketing genius. Obviously. Apparently none of us can. It's the "Snakes on a Plane" of fast food. And while I've yet personally to stumble across someone that's actually eaten one of them, I did love the fact that the "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" crew all ate one, then blogged about it. Check it out here.

BUT - of course - what I loved even more were the reader comments.

I suppose I just don't understand "comment psychology" because people continue to confound me when they take to the comment sections of articles and blogs to champion their moral causes with such righteous vehemence. Case in point: after the NPR daredevils documented their adventures in chicken, bacon, and cheese, this comment appeared on the blog:

"I'm dismayed that any of you would eat KFC anything. Haven't you seen the film showing how those chickens are mistreated? KFC workers at the chicken-raising facilities aren't kind people, and in one incident workers were caught, by an infiltrator with a hidden camera, stomping live chickens to death. Shame on all of you!"

Aw. She actually expects public radio journalists to have the same chicken sympathies as she (yes, it was a she. Obviously it was a she).

Ahem.

Just for the sake of calorie comparison (all moral judgements about the treatment of chickens, pigs, cheese, or whatever else sacrified itself for the glory of the drive-thru nothwithstanding), I'll politely remind all of us with our mouths agape over the depths of cardiovascular depravity to which we've sunk that the good ol' Wendy's Baconator Triple packs nearly three times the, um..."energy" as the Bacon Cheese Chickenwich. 1350 calories to the Double Down's 540. Also: it has twice the sodium and three times the fat.

Actually, that got me thinking about other fast food items more dramatically villainous than Chicken-Bacon-Cheese.

Here are the stats on some of modern food technology's more indignant offenders:

Wendy's Baconator Triple:
Calories: 1350
Fat: 90
Sodium: 2780

Burger King's Triple Whopper:
Calories: 1160
Fat: 76
Sodium: 1170

Carl's Jr's Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger
Calories: 1040
Fat: 70
Sodium: 2240

Taco Bell's Volcano Natchos:
Calories: 1000
Fat: 62
Sodium: 1930

Jack-in-the-Box's Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger:
Calories: 937
Fat: 65
Sodium: 1837

McDonald's Angus Bacon and Cheese
Calories: 790
Fat: 39
Sodium: 2070

In-N-Out's Double Double
Calories: 670
Fat: 71
Sodium: 1440

KFC's Double Down:
Calories: 540
Fat: 32
Sodium: 1380

So, really: not that any of us should make a regular habit out of anything that can be ordered-by-speaker or otherwise referred to by number, BUT - here's my response to the commenter that said:

"I was surprised by my reaction to the Double Down. I found myself very much enjoying this fried chicken/bacon delight while also feeling sad for my poor my arteries. I think I’ve found my new super-secret-fast-food-guilty-pleasure. Should we just start calling it a staple of the "fat-kin" diet?"

Hey, very much enjoy away. You could do much worse.

I like the spirit of the guy that said:

"Bet this is great w/ waffles & maple syrup or a couple fried eggs!"

Here here, sir.

Loosen up a little, America. It only LOOKS weird. Unleash a little hate on those Baconator creations: they're the REAL heart-attack-in-a-bag.

Mmmmm. Which makes me want one. Like, STAT.

Stay tuned for my next foray into pop culture cardiology, a series I'm going to call "Lost Weight." As in - "is it just me, or is this final season of "Lost" several spare tires, love handles, man boobs and beer guts heavier than the previous 5?" Wait for it. I've got picture proof.